By: Monday Danladi, Bauchi
A total of 500 primary schools mathematics Teachers in Bauchi State have undergone a One-day awareness on new patterns of teaching the subject for easy understanding of the pupils.
The awareness event was organized by the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), with the aim of introducing them to new patterns of teaching the subject at the primary school level, held on Saturday, at the 1000 Seater lecture theater of the Yelwa Campus.
Speaking at the commencement of the event, the VC said that, “It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, for this important Mental Maths Awareness Event. I am particularly delighted to welcome the hundreds of dedicated primary school teachers who have taken time to be here today.”
He added that,”Your presence demonstrates your commitment to improving the quality of mathematics education and shaping the future of our children.”
Represented by, the VC stressed that, “Mathematics is one of the most important foundations for learning, innovation, and national development. Yet, for many children-and indeed many adults-it is often associated with fear, anxiety, and frustration.”
According to him, “One of the objectives of today’s event is to remind us that mathematics should not be a subject to fear, but a language of thinking, reasoning, creativity, and problem-solving. By strengthening teachers’ confidence and equipping them with practical mental mathematics strategies, we can transform how children experience mathematics from their earliest years.”
Ibrahim Garba added that,”This event is made possible through a landmark international research grant awarded to ATBU under the Regional Teachers Initiative for Africa (RTIA), funded by the European Commission through the Global Gateway Initiative and coordinated by the Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI) alongside leading international partners.”
“I am proud to state that ATBU is the only Nigerian University among just six successful institutions selected from Ninety- four applications worldwide. This remarkable achievement is a testament to the quality of research and innovation taking place at our University,” he added.
According to him,”The project focuses on improving early number learning through the Mental Starters Learner Workbook and supporting both pre-service and in-service teachers to strengthen children’s mathematical thinking.”
He also said that, “Beyond improving classroom practice, the project is also developing the next generation of mathematics education researchers by supporting doctoral students and strengthening research capacity within Nigeria.”
“I wish to place on record my special appreciation to Professor Balarabe Yushau and Dr Lawan Abdulhamid for their outstanding leadership, commitment, and international scholarship. Through their dedication, they have not only secured this highly competitive international grant but have also positioned Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University prominently on the global research map,” he added.
According to him,”Their collaboration with distinguished institutions including Dublin City University, Ireland, and Rhodes University, South Africa, reflects the growing international recognition of ATBU’s research excellence. As a university, we are immensely proud of this achievement.”
The VC added,”To our dear teachers, I encourage you to embrace today’s activities with open minds. Ask questions, participate actively, share experiences, and enjoy doing mathematics together. The strategies you will experience today have the potential to make mathematics more engaging, meaningful, and enjoyable for thousands of children across our schools).”
He concluded, “On behalf of the Management of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, I congratulate the project team for this milestone and assure you of the University’s continued support for research that improves education, empowers teachers, and contributes to national development.*
In his remarks, the Lead Facilitator of the programme, Prof Balarabe Yushau, said that, “It’s a new approach, actually making mathematics make sense to the students. All what is happening before, the teaching and the learning of mathematics, the students are not finding sense out of it. If you ask them what is the meaning of being, they don’t know. So now, this is developing a new way of making the students understand what they are doing by understanding the pattern that mathematics all entails. ”
He added that,”And that pattern is the departure. This is the main point that we are trying to do. Rather than giving them the formula, we want them to understand the pattern that is in the mathematics. And the moment they understand that, that’s the end of it.”
According to him,”Because if you look at the whole history of mathematics, all those people that made discoveries, that made inventions, that made breakthroughs, they all do that through understanding the patterns in the mathematics. So that is the secret of the mathematics.”
The Lead Facilitator further said that,”And that’s what we don’t have in our classroom here. So this is actually what we are targeting. And we are progressing. And surprisingly, we see a number of students at a very tender age that are coming with some very, very amazing things. It’s unbelievable because we are giving them the chance to do that. Yes, so that is just the point.”
He stressed that,”There are a lot of mathematics teachers in the primary level. What we have our target. As I mentioned in my speech, we started with the pre-service teachers who are coming from the Colleges of Education. Last 2025 and 2026 sessions, we worked with almost 100 pre-service teachers who are now going to the primary school. They are in the schools. So we follow them during their teaching practices and we give them training on this. And it’s not something that we give them once and go. We follow them throughout the year, throughout their teaching practice.”
According to him,”We have their videos and we show them their mistakes and we show them how they can progress and we correct them. So we follow them throughout. So we finish with that. Next academic session, we are selecting based on our resources, based on our capabilities, we will select some of the in-service teachers. And later on, if the government sees good side of it, they will expand it to the whole of the country.’
He also said that it is a welcome development stressing that, “We are very much available to share our experiences. Today is not a training, the event is about awareness. Because the other training we select people that we want to give them the training and we follow them throughout the year. But this one, we want as many people to come and understand what we are doing.”
According to him,”The moment you have this awareness, if you are able to see us or even to collaborate with us, we can incorporate you into those that we are going to follow. So today’s event is actually about awareness and we are ready for 500 and above.”
He disused that,”The impact is unbelievable. And we have all the results with us. The performance of the students is just unbelievable. They have, because what we did actually is to understand what is their baseline data, what is their capabilities. And we take them through the training. And after the training we also test them and see how much have they progressed. And the difference is, some of them the difference is almost 80 percent.”
“That means somebody has got 20 at the beginning, now he has 70. So that is exactly what we have in all our outcomes, we don’t have a single case where somebody remained where he was. All of them progressed. That’s just the point. And from the teachers and also from the students. Yes, from the pre-service teachers and also from the students. All of them are very happy with the new way of looking at the mathematics,” he concluded.
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